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Author Archives: Fatima R

Interest in Six Sigma has been growing rapidly within the business world, especially the professional project management society, and the most common query coming from these business communities is, “how can it help their business?” To help you understand, here is an article on how Six Sigma can transform your business.

Increase workers satisfaction.-

Dealing with workers queries about the finer points of their term of contracts, pay entitlements as well as business rules and regulations can take a lot of time, frustrate workers and even bog down human resource and other senior staff. Six Sigma can eliminate guesswork on what qualifies as premium time, vacation allowance and overtime. In addition, it can eliminate errors that lead to over and underpayments, as well as effort and time it takes to correct and eliminate them. Therefore, Six Sigma can enable your workers to access their own updated and accurate payroll data anytime they want and save a lot of time, hence boost employees morales.

Increase productivity.-

Utilizing employees efficiently at all the time is a daunting task for most businesses, particularly for producers who usually have a huge workforce to manage that works across different regions, locations, languages, as well as cultures. Six Sigma training can empower business owners to accurately measure time spent on indirect and direct activities and even identify the origin of low productivity. You might think that you have employed a lot of workers but find that it is actually inadequate training or supply chain problems that are reducing your production. Six Sigma can help you to identify the issue so that you can address it.

Increase competitive advantage.-

How well a business performs in respect to clients facing procedures has a big impact on revenue creation and forms an important part of its expenses structure. While each client encounter is unique, Six Sigma recognizes that having a lot of variables within client-facing activities can be as disadvantageous as it’s in back-end activities. Six Sigma can identify various elements that can be standardized to improve performance and offer the info required to strengthen and enhance consistency across client relations.

Improve market share.-

Businesses that have been using Six Sigma correctly for a while have reported a profit margin growth of about twenty percent every year for each sigma process shift – up to 4.8s or 5.0s. Sigma process shift allows the business to calculate how far or near the procedure is from Six Sigma. Because most business starts at 3.0s, the initial Sigma shifts usually have a drastic effect on the level returned to the business’s bottom line.

Reducing costs.-

Six Sigma helps business to understand their operations and thus improve their procedures. This leads to cost reductions.• Reducing waste – Six Sigma can help business owners to identify the unnecessary movement of info, workers, and products and also reveal untapped workers ideas, creativity and skills.

Successful project management professional should be able to oversee implementation of a project from the beginning to the end. They need to have the ability to ensure that all the stakeholders in the project are involved effectively to ensure that all the goals set are met in an effective way within the stipulated time. A PMP certification holder should have the right knowledge, experience, analytical skills and possess the following personality traits.

Visionary

Effective PMPs are visionary. They have the ability to view the big picture and never lose the sight of the goals set. The professional should be able to break down the large objectives into small and manageable ones. They have the ability to remain focused throughout the project implementation process without getting distracted with irrelevant issues. They have the ability to see the trees and forest at the same time.

Efficient and Organized

Good project management professionals are efficient and organized. This means they possess high-level time management skills, punctuality and meet the deadline set effectively. Such professionals have the talent to differentiate between what is and what is not essential. At all times, they get perfect solutions to problems that arise and know the right time to cut their losses and stop implementing a strategy when it fails to work.

Reliable and Honest

Responsible, honest and reliable; are important traits for a project manager. The manager should mean what he or she says say what they mean. The members of the project team should respect the PMP loyalty and integrity. The manager should consistently fulfill the promises made and holds others accountable in an equitable and fair way if they feel to meet the expectations.

Good Communicator

Effective and clear communication is vital. An effective manager ensures that stakeholders and team members updated about all the information they require and carry out consultations with them. He or she should ask questions and listens to the answers provided. The manager is receptive to new suggestions and ideas that can help move the project forward in the right manner. In addition, they share the reasons behind their actions and decisions.

Leadership Abilities

A PMP should have excellent leadership skills. He or she should have the ability to for a cohesive team where all the members support and help each other. The manager should know how to delegate tasks according to the knowledge they have. In addition, they are optimistic and enthusiastic.

Project management certification is a great addition to your resume if you are seeking a managerial position. The Project Management Institute is the only accredited body that offers a standard course to students through various charters worldwide. The prospective project managers must be tested on five essential elements which include initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and closing of a given project. Usually, the exam includes 200 multiple questions which are used to grade applicants on their proficiency before they are certified. In order to qualify for a project management certification, applicants should at least possess a high school diploma, bachelor’s degree or gained five years experience managing various projects.

According to the Project Management Salary survey, managers who have a project management certification are paid higher salaries compared to other employees at the same level. Fields such as ITare in high demand of certified project managers mostly because it involves a lot of tedious schemes that must be completed within a short time frame. Hence, certified project managers have a bargaining advantage to ask for a higher salary than non-PMP managers. In fact, certified project management professionals earn 10 to 15 percent higher salary than non-credited workmates.

In most cases, PMP certificate holders tend to be favored whenever searching for a job. Since, some employers have a strict policy of only accepting certified project managers due to the nature of the work. Therefore, it is important for PMP qualified applicants to always indicate that they are PMP certified at the top of their resume.

However, PMP certification is not only helpful to those seeking to get hired, but, also to employers or business owners. In order to partake in a PMP course, applicants are required to have attained between 3 years to 5 years of managing various programs. In the long term, prospects are able to oversee their own businesses without the need of a second party. For instance, a hotel owner who is PMP certified can review and calculate the budget of a marketing campaign project without the risk of getting ripped off.

Although Project management certification is somewhat expensive and time-consuming, it is necessary especially for those who want to advance in their careers. In fact, most high paying tenders from the government require PMP certified applicants to improve the success rate of a project. PMP certification is quite flexible since registration and examination can be done online.

Project management professional gave us her opinion about theProject Management Body of Knowledge and it supreme changes occurring from the PMBOK4 to PMBOK5. The important changes occurring in the update to PMBOK5 include; changes in knowledge areas, failure, new and explicit concepts, maturity and project management office.

In the new knowledge areas, the vast communication between management has ensured a split to enhance the stakeholder management. New concepts have been incorporated into the new PMBOK5. The section about business value is completely new and well explained in chapter one. PMBOK5 in chapter three is explained that projects can now be terminated prematurely. In chapter eleven you get to understand about risk management, which now it includes; attitude, threshold and appetite.

PMBOK5 added a newly changed concepts. Now, the project manager is no longer responsible for achieving the project set objectives. In chapter one, the concept of the project manager is being the leader of the project team. Chapter two properly explains the stakeholders where it provides a sufficient information for anyone to perceive oneself as being directly affected by a decision, activity or outcome of a project hence, a proper project stakeholder. The project sponsor role is well accounted for in chapter three where the sponsor is entirely responsible for the project success.

In the terms; maturity, a lot of emphases has been laid on the provision of adequate alignment with the PMI standards. It also requires proper explanation of topics and agitates for practical advice from project management reality. Maturity enhances Precision and optimum performance in projects.

PMBOK5 has further expanded the definition of Project Management Office. They have stratified it into three possible ways of existence:

Controlling

Directive

Supportive

The clear definition of Project Management Office helps enhance the precision of a project.

The addition of process has also been enhanced in the PMBOK5. The processes added include:

In addition, process changes have been enhanced in the PMBOK5. The changes include:

Control Risks

Control Communications

Manage Communications

Control Procurements

Identify Stakeholders

Direct and Manage Project Work

Validate Scope

Plan Quality Management

Control Quality

Plan Human Resource Management

Plan Communications Management

Manage Stakeholders’ Engagement

In conclusion, the important changes to PMBOK5 are in response to market changing trends and the natural evolution of the project manager role in the global market. It aims at enhancing optimum performance in project management.

Project Manager Professionals around the globe have been waiting for the release of the PMBOK5. Professionals who want to be accredited, need to pass the new test to be certified. This is important should they wish to remain relevant. The processes of the project management tree remain the same, as it forms the backbone of any project management process flow. The process groups are the Initiating Process Group, Planning Process Group, Executing Process Group, Monitoring and Controlling Process Group and the Closing Process Group.

What are the important changes to PMBOK5?

The process flow is integral to the smooth running of every process and has been fine-tuned for professionals to implement the project management methodologies. It is important in any project that any little detail is taken care of, as it could affect the outcome, time management and budget. Poorly planned projects have cost companies and governments millions. Therefore, the implementation of clear projects are integral to the success anything that requires a process flow. Instead of keeping man ledgers and physical flowcharts, PMBOK5 makes it easier for the professional project manager to streamline the deliverables. The program will also highlight areas of concern.

The release of the PMBOK5 is set to take all the guesswork out of project management. With its release in 2013, it is a great enhancement on the PMBOK4 that was released five years prior. The world of project management has forever been changed by the very first edition. However, the 5th edition is giving those in teams the ability to manage projects from beginning to end.

The introduction of a new knowledge area, stakeholder management is integral to anyproject management plan. This enhancement alone is worth the package as the stakeholders play a large part in any project. The allocation of their funds, activities and decisions directly influence any of the plans. Focus areas for individual stakeholders and grouped areas can now be allocated. Management of the stakeholders with their individual planning also needs to be taken into consideration. PMBOK5 has broken these down into the following areas: Identify Stakeholders, Plan Stakeholder Management, Manage Stakeholder Engagement and Control Stakeholder Engagement.

The additional functionalities now include the following: Plan Schedule Management in the time management area, Plan Cost Management in Cost Management, Plan HR Management in HR Management. Communication Management has been simplified and streamlined, as well as Risk Management. The combination of these aspects makes PMBOK5 a sought after project management tool.